Environmental Missions

71% of the consumption based emissions in the US are caused by individuals

Why focus on the change households need to make? Shouldn't focus be on government and Big Business?

Of course the government and companies have a crucial roll to play in reducing emissions but 71% of US emissions is created by individuals and the choices we make. So the change to a more sustainable lifestyle has to come from us as well.

The average American's emissions is between 14-16 tonnes CO2 per year and to keep global warming within safe levels we need to get down to two tonnes per person.

The distribution of the average American's emissions look like this:

All sustainable choices do not have the same impact

Scientists divide the sustainable life choices (or environmental missions as they are called in this game) in to three separate groups based on how effective they are in reducing your carbon footprint:

1. High impact: >0,8 tCO₂e (tonnes of C02 equivalents)
2. Moderate impact: 0,2-0,8 tCO₂e
3. Low impact: <0,2 tCO₂e

It is obviously important to try to change one's lifestyle across as many areas as possible but it is also clear that if you do not make any changes in the small group of high impact actions becoming climate neutral is impossible. This reality is reflected in the game as well.

Clear correlation between the game's environmental missions and the latest climate research

The environmental missions all have a emission value which is based on climate research and how it shows that different actions reduce or increase ones carbon footprint. For instance, the environmental mission "Live Car Free" has an emission value of 30 which represents three tonnes. Support for which you can see in this study  

Some simplifications have been done for game mechanics reasons but in general the emission values all rely on climate research with an emphasis on how they effective they are in reducing the carbon footprint of an individual.